Corsair Flash Voyager GTR 32GB Review

Introduction:

These days flash drives are being released fast and furious and there is no shortage of size, speed or brands to choose from. Though with so many flash drives on the market, it can be hard for one brand to stand out over another, but the Voyager series from Corsair has managed to do just that. This line of flash drives offers a balance of performance, durability, price and even in the face of steep competition has managed to be the go to choice for many users worldwide. Corsair is now expanding the Voyager's current line-up with the addition of the new GTR drive. The GTR is a high performance flash drive that maintains many aspects of the original Voyager, but has an updated yellow color scheme, enhanced performance and will be released in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB flavors. This new series uses a quad-channel architecture that allows for extremely fast read speeds of up to 34MB/s and write speeds up to 28MB/s. On paper and in Corsair's internal lab tests the Voyager GTR line is presented as a very fast product. Before we can crown a new performance champ though, we will have to put it through our rigorous benchmarking process to see if our testing can match what Corsair's labs has produced.

Closer Look:

The Corsair Voyager GTR comes packaged in a clear plastic blister casing that displays the drive on the front side as well as lists information such as the size, series and USB support for the drive. The front also has an image of a wrap tunnel with the drive appearing as if it is traveling though it, highlighting the speed of the GTR series. The back side of the packaging explains that the Corsair Flash GTR is built for speed and also has a list of the included accessories; both the explanation and accessories listings come in multiple languages. Below these you will find a graph of one of Corsair's lab tests, which shows the GTR completing a transfer of 37,000 typical files in just 6 minutes 48 seconds, whereas an unnamed brand drive finished the same transfer at a much slower 37 minutes 24 seconds.

With the drive out of the packaging you can see that the Voyager GTR has a very recognizable Corsair design. It uses the same durable rubber padding that has been proven time and time again to protect Corsair's drives from pretty extreme damage, but the GTR uses a yellow and black color scheme to separate it from the other flash drives models. Looking at the front of the drive you have the Corsair logo on the top removable cap, the Flash Voyager GTR logo on the drive itself and an oval shaped activity light toward the end of the drive. The reverse side of the drive has been kept simple and all the info you will find here is Corsair's website address. Removing the top cap reveals the USB 2.0 head, which is where you will connect the drive to your PC or laptop to transfer data. Of course, you don't get just the drive, like with other Voyager products you also get an included lanyard and USB extension cable.

Now that we have had a good look at the drive, we can move on and start the testing to see if it is as fast as Corsair claims. Also, take a look at the image below and read on if you want to see if the Corsair Flash Voyager GTR survives or meets a watery doom!